~ This is John Galt speaking

Not a pipe?

This famous picture was made by the Belgian artist René Magritte. The text below it reads “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” – “This is not a pipe”.

No, it is not a pipe!

When asked why it wasn’t a pipe – it sure looked like one! – Magritte would reply: “Have you tried to smoke it?”

His point was that a picture is not reality. It is a depiction of reality.

This is true in many ways – pictures in a museum, what you see on your computer screen, movies, books, newspapers, and what a politician says. 😉 All of these are not reality itself, they are depictions of it.